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Fabulous recipe. I didn’t have capers or scallions, so I used a bit of extra pickle and a half an anchovy along with a handful of minced sweet onion. Fresh lemon juice makes so much difference. My husband likes parsley so I added a little fresh parsley, minced. Tartar sauce should NOT be sweet. NOT NOT NOT. Ew.

I’m getting ready to make a gallon of tarter sauce for the church’s annual fish fry and was looking for hints so I am appreciating the comments on here. My dad always made tarter sauce whenever we had fish but he didn’t use a recipe so I have had to try and figure it out as an adult without him around any more. I use Miracle Whip, sweet relish, onion, lemon juice, sugar, and mustard. I have to do it by guess as to how much of each one and do a taste test until it is close enough. I may experiment and try a couple different things.

I am crazy about a good tarter sauce. Store bought just gets you by. Years ago at The Big Time Diner in Mobile, AL, I tasted the best EVER! Because of me, they sell it by the pint! Have always wanted to make my own and now I will try. I also LOVE Worcester Sauce, so I know there will be some in mine. Tarter sauce is also good on a baked potato. The pints of tarter sauce I buy have never gone bad, even after 2-3 months. It turns yellowish at the fringes as it ages and I just stir it back in. Never a problem. Lemon juice is a preservative.

This really is a phenomenal recipe for tartar sauce; it beats, hands down, any of the other recipes I’ve read.

Miracle whip? Sweet relish? No. Just….no. Tartar sauce is not sweet…it is tangy and complex, and sets off the taste of the fish exquisitely. Um…and french fries too, as I must admit I dip my fries in tartar sauce.

This recipe was so easy to make that my 8 year old daughter whipped it up for our dinner tonight. We didn’t add the capers and we only put 2 drops of hot sauce but it still tastes great.
Thanks for the recipe. We won’t be buying the store brought stuff anymore! ☺

My Mom makes her own mayo and sauces. Hers is similar, using mayo made with xtra virgen olive oil, a garlic clove and lemon juice, with crushed tarragon along with the rest of the ingrdients. For fish tacos, she uses the garlic, lime juice, and 2 chipotle chiles along with some cumin, cilantro, and a touch of crushed oregano. We call it her secret fish sauce, and we use it on sandwiches too. Sometimes when we are in a spicy mood, she adds chopped pickled jalapenos to it. She sometimes whisks in yogurt (home made too) half and half. I like to wisk in more lemon or orange juice to thin it out and use for dressing on salad greens. Mom makes the best fish as it turns out perfect always! ( no matter what the sauce)!

Thanks for the all the great recipes, and all the wonderful ideas on this site.

I haven’t bought tartar sauce in over 8 years since I took a crack at making my own. I always use sweet pickle relish, good mayo, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, and don’t forget the DILL! Dill is so appropriate for fish, kind of like basil and tomatoes.
And, as for fridge-shelf life, I haven’t had any issues keeping it ‘safe’ for 2+ months.

This is THE BEST tartar sauce in the world! I have to keep a jar of it in the fridge at all times for my family. It goes on our sandwiches, we use it as a dip (goes great with steamed artichokes!), and of course with our seafood! Thank you so much, Elise for sharing!!

I worked at my aunt’s and uncle’s Dairy Queen in the late 70s. They were an independent store and my aunt made the tartar sauce for the fish and chips-the best in town. I still make it: it has mayonnaise, vinegar, pickle relish or chopped pickles, and salt and pepper. Maybe a little sugar to get the balance of acidity and sweetness. And I loved it with the fries as well-my aunt’s DQ also featured handmade french fries. I’ve also added a little dill to it. Those were the days; now the local french franchise doesn’t serve fish and chips anymore, but I make them at home. Won’t do fish and chips any other way. People always asked for extra tartar sauce for the fries.

Tartar Sauce should last refrigerated as long as 2 weeks, if you have put freshly chopped grn onions, scallions, or herbs in it. If there are no fresh items, it will last much, much longer. Mayo has lemon juice and/or vinegar it it. Then you are adding lemon juice and pickles to the mix…..nothing there to spoil. Bacteria does not like this highly acidic atmosphere. Most food borne illnesses are a result of lack of cleanliness, rather than the food itself. It’s simple, both the *food preparer* and the *food consumer* need to wash their hands well!

Elise, thank you for this great recipe for tartar sauce. I made it last night to go with some fresh fillet of sole. This will be my go-to recipe for tartar sauce from now on. The only different thing I did was use half mayo and half yoghurt to lighten it up a bit but kept everything else the same. It is really tasty. We also really liked your fish cake recipe (which I’ll probably make with our leftover sole).

Regarding the question about how long it’s safe to store the sauce, to which someone replied “3-4 days”…honestly (if I can say this as respectfully as possible) we’ve gone a bit too far in our concerns about food safety in this country! Is there anything in that list of ingredients that wouldn’t be safe to store in the refrigerator or on the shelf (mustard doesn’t need to be refrigerated) for several weeks? Sure, there are fresh onions in it, but those would keep (unrefrigerated) for a long time, in their natural safe, and even when chopped, when they’re combined with all those acidic ingredients, it would be a very rare bacteria indeed that could thrive on the bits of onion in the refrigerated sauce. No way! If I made this sauce, I wouldn’t hesitate to eat it for several weeks. Even months old, I seriously doubt it would make anyone sick.

Sorry–it’s probably no big deal, but I get SO tired of seeing people so paranoid about food spoilage that they throw tons of food away unnecessarily. Get real! =)

All of these ingredients are great, perhaps a little less dijon mustard as it can overpower. I also like to add some finely chopped cocktail onions for an extra added piquancy, for this amount no more than a tablespoon.

I was never a big fan of tartar sauce UNTIL I tasted the Wharf Tavern’s (St. George’s, Bermuda). Seemed to me it was possibly made using cream because it was sooo rich and delicious ! Now I make my own, however I am also a big fan of Srirachacha hot chili sauce as well on seafood…. and many other dishes !

I always make my own sauces and gravies etc.
What I like about many sauces and toppings, most are easy when people figure them out. I normally mix enough for the meal and it cuts down on any extra we not need. Hearing others’ little twists gives reason to experiment and explore.
Tomorrow (1/7/11) is our Fryday.
I will pickup some fresh catfish and give this a try.
May take some and sub extra sour cream for the mustard, add some blue cheese crumbles and see what I get? ;-P

I always thought tartar sauce was insipid, but my husband likes it so I decided to make it at home one night to go with pan-fried halibut. I used homemade mayo (which is worth the bother, IMO) and basically the same recipe (minus Tabasco, but I’ll try that next time). We ALL loved it and no one was more surprised than me.

I love tartar sauce and make it often, as it’s fast & easy with staple ingredients I always have on hand. I always use homemade mayo with olive oil, as well as Bubbies lacto-fermented dill pickle relish (naturally probiotic).

I love tartar sauce. Much more than I like seafood in fact. Is it blasphemous to eat it on french fries and hush puppies? But homemade is the way to go! My mom would always put a good helping of finely chopped onions. She had some theory about how it counteracted the ‘fattiness’ of the fried catfish we were usually eating. :)

Coming from the land of the fish fry, I have to say that I adore tartar sauce. I’ve never used a recipe, however, I generally just mix the pickle relish my mom cans and mix with some mayo.

Because my ‘recipe’ is so simple, I was speechless years ago when my roommate’s then-boyfriend (now husband) couldn’t believe that I knew how to make tartar sauce – he was actually excited when he found out and kind of followed me around, asking how I made it.

Thanks for the ideas to tinker with my own tartar sauce, e.g. capers, mustard and Tabasco. I use homemade relish (unlike anything in the store) and I grate an onion for intense flavor. Sometimes I add a finely chopped boiled egg. I’ve also found that it is better if you make it ahead of time and let the flavors meld. If there are leftovers, I use it as a base for tuna fish sandwich spread.

It is like cole slaw for me. I always hated cole slaw because my Mom made terrible cole slaw. As she was so good at most things I thought it was the dish itself. But when I discovered that no one else’s was so cloyingly sweet, I found out I liked it. She does tartar sauce from a jar, and I bought some (in a jar) last year that was redolent of tarragon and capers and cornichons. That was heaven. So it is not tartar sauce I dislike — it is my mom’s (from a jar) tartar sauce. I have never made my own from scratch, though. Should I use store bought mayo or make my own?

Why would anyone buy that stuff in a jar when it’s so easy, and so tasty, to make at home? Thanks for this recipe, I will try it soon. My usual calls for mayo, sweet pickle relish, dried onion, Dijon mustard and chopped parsley.

Your recipe is probably much tastier than mine. But mine is easy, and I always have the ingredients on hand. I mix up mayonnaise, some dill pickle relish, a little lemon juice, a little garlic powder, and some Old Bay seasoning. My husband won’t have it any other way now!